Netflix may soon offer cheaper, ad-supported subscription plans

For the longest time, Netflix users have demanded cheaper plans. But now it may finally happen because the company CEO Reed Hastings has revealed that the streaming giant is testing new ad-supported plans that will be much cheaper than the current Netflix plans. Netflix has resisted adding advertisements on its streaming device but if the user wants cheaper subscription plans, they will also have to deal with ads. Talking about introducing cheaper plans, Reed Hastings said, “Those who have followed Netflix know that I have been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription,” Hastings said during the company’s pre recorded earnings conference. “But as much as I am a fan of that, I am a bigger fan of consumer choice, and allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant to get what they want makes a lot of sense.” He reiterated that it makes a lot of sense to introduce plans that are cheaper. Hastings revealed that it will launch the service in a year or so. He also stated that the new ad-supported plans, which will be cheaper, would prove to be beneficial for the company as that would attract lot of new subscribers. Netflix stated that the rampant password sharing, competition from the other streaming giants and on-going Russia-Ukraine feud were some of the reasons why there was no significant rise in paid subscriptions. To bolster its revenue, Netflix did increase the price of its subscription plans in some countries, but that completely worked against the company. As around 600,000 subscribers in the US and Canada were lost due to the increased price. Talking about whether the ad-supported plans for Netflix would work or not, Hastings said," It’s pretty clear that it’s working for Hulu. Disney is doing it. HBO did it. I don’t think we have a lot of doubt that it works.” (Source: India Today)